


Kaede

by erenexe (krcliaskeith)



Series: Kaede Adventures [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Babysitter!Lance, Kaede is Keith's Daughter, Klance Family Au, M/M, This is completely based around Keith and Lance and their child Kaede, Voltron Ship Exchange Gift, family au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-25 02:20:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14368815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krcliaskeith/pseuds/erenexe
Summary: Kaede. The light of their lives, the one that brought Keith and Lance together.A story of Lance and Keith and the life they have with their daughter, Kaede.





	Kaede

Keith was in the middle of getting ready for his shift at the restaurant when he heard a knock on the door. Rushing downstairs, he ran up to the door, hoping to some god that it was the local daycare, since he couldn’t leave Kaede with Shiro anymore because he was out of the country. As he opened the door he was stunned, lost in the striking blue eyes of the beautiful boy standing in front of him. They were like the ocean: easy to get lost in.

  
The boy cleared his throat,”Uh, Hi. I’m Lance McClain, I’m here to pick up Kaede for daycare?” Keith’s eyes widened. He stepped back a little and let Lance in. Keith gestured for Lance to sit down on the couch.

  
“Nice to meet you,” Keith held out his hand to the man. ”I’m Keith Kogane, Kaede's father. She is still laying down, asleep. I’ll go get her ready, I didn’t know you’d be coming so early.” Lance shook Keith’s hand, smiling while doing so. Keith tied his hair up into a ponytail before going back into Kaede’s room to get her ready for daycare.

  
“How old is Kaede, by the way?”

  
“She’s four.” Keith made his way out of her bedroom, Kaede following suit, and into the livingroom where he sat on the couch opposite of Lance while she sat between his legs so he could do her hair. Lance looked down at Kaede and thought he was seeing a cherub. The little girl was absolutely beautiful, obviously getting most of her features from her equally as beautiful father. The little girl, Kaede, had long black hair falling just below her shoulder blades and had beautiful dark brown eyes that were almost seemingly black, lance assumed she got those from her mother. She had a fair skin color, kind of an olive color and chubby cheeks. She wasn’t short, but she definitely wasn’t tall either. She was tiny but in a healthy way. To Lance, she looked like a little angel and to Keith, she was.

  
“No offence, but you seem a little young to have a kid.” Keith laughed.

  
“I’m twenty-four.”

  
“Still young.”

  
“Oh yeah? And how old are you?” Lance was taken aback by the question. He smirked before replying.

  
“I’m 23.”

  
“I’m not the only young one here then,” He laughed. The two continued to talk for another few minutes before keith heard the tell-tale sign that his daughter was bored. Finally deciding that she wanted to know who the strange man in front of her was, she raised her small hand and pointed at Lance.

  
“Who’s that?” Keith smiled.

  
“That’s Lance, He’s going to be watching you while I’m at work for now on, okay?” She nodded her head and waved at Lance. Lance smiled and waved back. Lance started with the questions again as soon as she smiled, content with the new information.

  
“Kaede’s a pretty name, sounds foreign. Is it?” Keith stopped fixing Kaede’s hair and stared at Lance before deciding it might be best to actually reply.

  


  
“It is actually. Foreign to Americans at least,” Lance gave him a confused look and Keith decided to give him a brief fact of his life. “I’m Japanese but when I was young I became an orphan and because I was an orphan, I was adopted by my Aunt and Uncle. I decided that I wanted to keep the tradition of our family going and gave Kaede a Japanese name instead of American. It means maple.” Lance nodded in understanding. Keith took his coat of the coat rack, grabbing his keys and wallet off the table after.

  


  
“Although I’d love to sit and chat, I have to leave now otherwise I’ll be late. Again. It was nice meeting you, Lance. And if you have any problems, shoot me a text and I’ll answer as soon as I can. My number is on a note in her bag.” Lance nodded.

  
“It was nice meeting you, Keith.”

  
“It was nice meeting you too, Lance.”

  
Kaede hugged her father before heading out with Lance to the daycare van. Keith watched them leave before leaving himself.

  
Five months later and Lance and Kaede were practical best friends. He loved that little girl with all of his heart and would literally die for her if anything were to happen. Over the five months that he had been taking care of Kaede at the daycare, he and Keith had become friends, best friends some would say. Keith introduced Lance to Pidge, the gremlin who literally has not left him alone since middle school and is now a permanent part of his life, and Shiro, the overprotective best friend who hasn’t stopped being overprotective even if Keith is in his twenties and is a responsible adult. Lance loved both of them, especially Pidge, she has a polar opposite personality from Keith’s and yet they were still inseparable.

  
....

  
“Keith? There is a woman here for you and Kaede? Says her name is Mia?” Keith looked at Pidge with wide eyes and the look was mutual. She quickly told Lance to take Jake, her son, and Kaede into the playroom. He did as told and returned soon after.

  
All three walked up to the front door and lo and behold, there stood Mia Johnson, Keith’s ex-girlfriend and Kaede’s mother. Keith’s entire mind, body, and soul filled with anger just seeing her at Katie’s doorstep.

  
“Pidge, it’s nice to see you. How’ve you been?” Pidge was practically seething anger, about as much if not more anger than Keith.

  
“My friends are the only ones who call me Pidge,” The hatred in her tone truly bit. Mia flinched and backed up a bit. It was Keith’s turn to speak.

  
“Why are you here?” Mia gave a very unsettling I’m-a-secret-serial-killer-and- you’re-my-next-victim smile.

  
“I’m here to see my child.”

  
“Do you even remember her name?”

  
“Kade,” Mia is hesitant in her reply and even when she does, she get’s Kaede’s name wrong. Keith lets out a harsh laugh that makes both Lance and Mia flinch.

  
“Her name is Kaede and if you can’t even remember her name correctly then no, you have zero rights to see her.”

  
“I have every right!” Lance stepped up to the plate this time. Stepping closer to Mia, he began to speak.

  
“No, you don’t. Keith has been taking care of that beautiful baby girl for four years almost five now and you’ve never once came back to step up and take responsibility for the kid that you have. Never once have you tried to come back into the picture and try and fix things with your daughter, with your old family. I’ve seen the type of hardworking father Keith is in the way that Kaede speaks of him. I also see the way pain fills her tiny little heart when she talks about not having a mommy or when the other kids at daycare talk about theirs. When you left to go live your life, you left two amazing people who didn’t deserve your crap in your wake. She was two months old, Mia, Maya, however you say your name, when you left. She needed her mommy more than ever and you left. Keith has made a living of having two jobs and still being able to go out and have life and make friends and take care of a kid for the past four years and for some reason you couldn’t balance being a stay at home mom and having a life so you decided to just go and have your life to be able to try and escape those responsibilities.Trust me, I know exactly what you’re doing because I did it too. I left my girlfriend when times got tough because we had tried and tried and tried to have a kid and when she finally got pregnant, eight months in our baby died. I couldn’t bear it, any of it. I packed my things and left. I left a note on the counter, explaining my absence but nothing will ever compare to the giant guilt complex I have over leaving her. I loved her, I really did, but I was tired of trying to have a kid only for it to end up a miscarriage time and time again. I will never forgive myself for leaving her and everything we had together but that was years ago, I’ve moved on but that doesn’t ever stop the longing I have to go back to her some days. Unlike you, I’ve made advances at contacting her, and she accepts my apologies because she wanted to leave and give up too. I’m now the godfather of her two beautiful baby boys and I couldn’t be happier. At least I know that she was able to move on and have the kids that she wanted. You could’ve done that, contacting Keith I mean, but you didn’t. You ghosted him, you disappeared from both of their lives and for some reason you think it’s okay to come back and it’s not. It will never be okay to come back. I hope you’ve had the time of your life because from now on, you’ll have to live with the fact that because you gave up on your kid, your family, you don’t get the chance to come back. At all. I hope you’re happy.” Lance hit a homerun. The tears running down Mia’s face as he spoke shocked everyone. He didn’t yell, he didn’t scream, his voice was calm the entire way through. He wanted her to feel the way he felt and she felt every bit of it.

  
“Lance, back down I think she understands,” Keith pulls on Lance’s arm and he backs up a bit so that he is no longer in her face.

  
“I’m sorry.” Keith shook his head and looked at her, actually looked at her for the first time in a long time. She looked older than she was, in reality she was only a few months younger than Keith. Her cheeks had sunken in and she had wrinkles so bad he thought her face was melting off, it was terrifying and absolutely the number one reason why he was scared of older people. The beauty that she had not that long ago is gone and taken over by the ugly of drugs and drinking. She honestly looked like the stereotypical drug addict and Keith was not letting Kaede anywhere near her.

  
It was Pidge’s turn to ruin Mia’s day.

  
“Listen, Mia, it’s painstakingly obvious that you are not wanted here or anywhere near here so please do us all a wonderful favor and leave the premises immediately.” While speaking Pidge had slowly backed Mia away from the porch and to the sidewalk. Mia had finally given up. She turned away and left. Keith let out a breath of relief and turned towards Lance. He smiled and thanked him. Lance smiled back and wrapped Keith in a hug, to which keith returned.

  
Keith broke the hug to turn it to a kiss, to his desire, Lance responded. There, on Pidge’s doorstep, Keith and Lance became KeithandLance.

  
….

  
“Kaede Louise Kogane! Get in here now!” Seeing Keith get onto Kaede was weird for Lance. The child hardly ever made any trouble, she was primarily a good child. So when she destroyed her bedroom walls with marker, you could say that Lance was shocked.

  
“Yes, daddy?” Kaede was playing the innocent card and it was then that Lance realized why this kid never got in trouble at daycare: She played the innocent card and let others get blamed for the trouble she had caused.

  
“What is,” Keith waved his arms, gesturing towards the messy walls. “This?” Kaede flinched when she looked at the mess she had made. She knew she was bound to get grounded for at least two days.

  
“A pretty picture I made for you?” Keith looked like he was three seconds away from losing it.

  
“You are eight years old, why are you coloring all over your walls like you’re four years old again?”

  
“I don’t know, actually. I just thought it’d be fun to do.”

  
“Well, your ‘something fun to do’ shenannigans has costed you a five day grounding. I want you to go sit at the dining table until I’m finished cleaning your walls.” She nodded, defeated, and walked into the dining room and sat down at the table, waiting. Lance went up to the little girl and smiled before giving her a hug.

  
“Although, you did destroy your bedroom walls and your father is definitely going to be mad for at least a few hours about it, I’ll try and get him to shorten your sentence. If you can be good for the next day and not cause any problems, I’m sure he’ll agree.” He whispered to the little one.

  
“Okie dokie,” She smiled and hugged Lance.

  
Lance had become an almost permanent part of Kaede’s life. Not only as her teacher, but also as her step-dad (He and Keith had gotten married when Kaede was six). She loved him to death and hoped that her dad and Lance stayed together for a long time.

  
(Keith shortened her grounding to three days after a day of her being good and other persuasive activities on Lance’s end.)

  
…

  
“Dad? Papa? Is anyone home?” Kaede had come home from her friend’s house, she threw her bag down by the door after grabbing her laptop from it and laid her shoes down next to it. When she didn’t receive an answer, she smiled. Being home alone was a gift sent from the gods and was a blessing for Kaede. Not having to deal with them for even a few minutes of peace was perfect, don’t get it wrong, she loved her parents, but they could be overbearing at times. (Okay, so most of the time they could be intolerable but that’s besides the point.)

  
Kaede sat down on the couch and got on her laptop. She watched netflix until she heard the front door open, she sighed.

  
“Did you hear that sigh? I think the monster is home,” Lance joked. Kaede looked up from her laptop and smacked Lance’s arm as he stepped behind her.  
“I’m no monster,” She replied.

  
“She’s right Lance, she’s no monster,” she almost said thank you, that is until he finished his sentence. “She’s the gremlin who replaced our angel.” Keith butted in.  
“Ha Ha, you guys are hilarious.”

  
“Thank you, we try,” Lance said as he ruffled her hair. She swatted his hand of her head and stood up.

  
“Hey, Kaede, I know you love netflix and hulu and all that sweet jazz but do you think you could help put groceries away before you head off to your room?” She nodded and helped. After the groceries were all put away, Kaede left the kitchen and went to her room. Keith and Lance went to the living room and sat on the couch.

  
“We’re really lucky to have a kid like her,” Lance said as he wrapped his arm around Keith’s shoulder.

  
“We really are. You know what’s sad though?” Keith laid his head on Lance’s shoulder and stroked his arm.

  
“What?” Lance kissed his forehead.

  
“She’s leaving for college in a month and I’m going to lose my babygirl and she’s not going to be my baby anymore and then we’re going to have an empty nest and I don’t know if I can handle that.” Lance pulled Keith into his lap and held onto him.

  
“Baby, I know you’re going to miss her but you have to let her move on with her life. She’s going to do great things but in order for her to do those great things, she needs a college education. We have to let the little bird fly, okay?” Keith nodded.

  
And they did. They let their little bird fly and she flew as high as she could. She went to college for eight years to become te doctor she always dreamed of being. She loved her job, she was saving lives. It was the one thing she always wanted to do, she wanted to be able to save lives. So many lives. Keith and Lance were and always will be so proud of her. 


End file.
